Garden animals in the UK, such as hedgehogs, rabbits and even domestic cats, have the potential to harbor new strains of coronavirus, a new study shows.
Researchers in the UK have used machine learning to predict associations between 411 coronavirus strains and 876 potential host mammal species.
Their machine learning model has integrated features extracted from genomes, such as protein structure, as well as ecological and other traits.
The results “involved” the common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the domestic cat (Felis catus) as predicted hosts for the new coronaviruses.
Among the “highest priority” is the smaller Asian yellow bat (Scotophilus kuhlii), a known host of the coronavirus, which is common in East Asia but is not well studied.
The potential for the creation of a new generation of coronavirus in wild and domestic animals “could have been underestimated,” say experts at the University of Liverpool.
In the picture, a European wild hedgehog. The potential scale of a new generation of coronavirus in wild and domestic animals could have been underestimated, suggests a machine learning study published in Nature Communications
Predicting the animals that could be the source of a future outbreak of coronavirus can help reduce the risk of occurring in human populations.
“Our results demonstrate a broad underestimation of the potential scale of the new generation of coronavirus in wild and domestic animals,” say the researchers in their paper, published in Nature Communications.
These hosts represent new targets for surveillance of new human pathogenic coronaviruses.
There may be 30 times more host species than are currently known, which have the potential to harbor new strains of SARS-CoV-2, the team says.
Their analysis also suggests that there are at least 11 times more associations between mammalian species and coronavirus strains than empirical observations have shown so far.
In addition, it is estimated that there are over 40 times more mammalian species with four or more coronavirus strains than previously observed.
For example, the Asian palm civet and the larger horseshoe bat are predicted to host 32 and 68 different coronaviruses, respectively.
European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). The researchers say in their paper: “Our results also involve the common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the domestic cat (Felis catus) as predicted hosts for SARS-CoV-2”
Like the hedgehog and the rabbit, predicted hosts in which SARS-CoV-2 may recombine with other coronaviruses include the dromedary camel, which is the major route of transmission of MERS-CoV to humans.
Hedgehog and rabbit have previously been confirmed as hosts for other beta-coronaviruses, although they “have no appreciable significance for human health,” the team added.
Some mammals identified in the study as potential hosts for new coronavirus strains – such as horseshoe bats, palm owls and pangolins – have already been linked to either SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2003 SARS outbreak, or SARS- CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
Evidence already suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is derived from horseshoe bats, although the virus is likely to pass through pangolins to humans, a scaly mammal often confused by a reptile.
Meanwhile, the masked palm was found carrying SARS-CoV-1, the coronavirus that killed 775 people and infected more than 8,000 globally during the 2003 epidemic.
New coronaviruses can occur when two different strains co-infect an animal, causing recombination of viral genetic material.
SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a recent mixture or genetic recombination of coronaviruses.
As a result of this recombination, one of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins allows the virus to enter human cells.
Despite the mass launch of Covid-19 vaccines, the University of Liverpool team said the recombination of other coronaviruses with SARS-CoV-2 is “an immediate threat to public health”.
![The research paper states: “Among the highest priorities is the smaller Asian yellow bat [Scotophilus kuhlii, pictured], a known host of coronavirus, common in East Asia, but not well studied](https://i0.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/02/16/16/39362292-9266263-The_research_paper_says_Amongst_the_highest_priority_is_the_less-a-28_1613491962660.jpg?resize=560%2C372&ssl=1)
The research paper states: “Among the highest priorities is the smaller Asian yellow bat [Scotophilus kuhlii, pictured], a known host of coronavirus, common in East Asia, but not well studied “
Illustration showing the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. There may be 30 times more host species than are currently known, which have the potential to harbor new strains of SARS-CoV-2, according to experts from the University of Liverpool.
This recombination could give rise to a virus with all the more serious aspects of different viruses from the coronavirus family (coronaviridae).
“Such recombination could easily produce new viruses with both SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and additional pathogenicity or viral tropism from other parts of coronavirides,” they say.
However, there is a wide range of mammalian species “that are not yet associated with SARS-CoV-2 recombination,” but that are predicted to host SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, experts say.
Understanding how susceptible different mammals are to different coronaviruses could provide information about where recombination might occur.
SARS-CoV-2 is likely to have ancestral origins in a species of bat, but could have reached humans through an intermediate species, such as pangolins – a scaly mammal often mistaken for a reptile (pictured)
The authors acknowledge that their results are based on limited data on coronavirus genomes and host virus associations and that there are study biases for certain animal species, all of which present uncertainty in predictions.
However, identifying high-risk species for the generation of new coronavirus strains may aid surveillance efforts.
“This information could help inform prevention and mitigation strategies and provide a vital early warning system for future new coronaviruses,” they say.
World Health Organization investigators acknowledged earlier this month that their research mission to Wuhan will not achieve its goal of revealing how the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans – meaning we may never know its origin. .
Chinese scientists believe that SARS-CoV-2 comes from bats
The human virus COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 broke away from its closest known relative – another coronavirus from a horseshoe bat (pictured) – about 30 to 40 years ago, according to the University of Sydney’s Simon Hothe most likely happened more recently
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People’s Liberation Army and the Pasteur Institute in Shanghai have concluded that the coronavirus may have originated from bats.
In a statement, the team said: “The natural host of the Wuhan coronavirus could be bats, but there may be an unknown intermediary between bats and humans.
Research published in the Lancet also identified bats as the most likely original host of the virus after samples were taken from the lungs of nine patients in Wuhan.
The team suggested that the bats transmitted the disease to an “intermediate” host at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan before being transmitted to the “terminal host” – the humans.
Authorities have blamed food markets in Wuhan, the Chinese city in the center of the outbreak that scientists are struggling to contain.
Rodents and bats, among other animals, are slaughtered and sold in traditional “wet markets”, which tourists gather to see the “real” part of the country.